The invention had the object of finding novel compounds having valuable properties, in particular those which can be used for the preparation of medicaments.
The present invention relates to compounds and to the use of compounds in which the inhibition, regulation and/or modulation of signal transduction by protein kinases, in particular immune-modulatory or stress response kinases, furthermore to pharmaceutical compositions which comprise these compounds, and to the use of the compounds for the treatment of kinase-induced diseases.
Because protein kinases regulate nearly every cellular process, including metabolism, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and cell survival, they are attractive targets for therapeutic intervention for various disease states. For example, cell-cycle control, immune modulation, stress response and angiogenesis, in which protein kinases play a pivotal role are cellular processes associated with numerous disease conditions such as but not limited to cancer, inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic infections, abnormal angiogenesis and diseases related thereto, atherosclerosis, macular degeneration, diabetes, obesity, and pain.
Compounds of formula I inhibit the stress response eIF2 kinase EIF2AK4 called general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2).
Many strategies of cancer treatment of solid tumors focus on the surgically removal of the tumor mass as far as possible and the subsequent eradication of any residual tumor cells by radiotherapy and chemotherapy with cytotoxic agents or inhibitors that target cancer cell pathways more specifically.
However, the success of such approach is limited and often does not persist. This is mainly due to the narrow therapeutic window for such cytotoxic agents (specificity and side effects) and to the capability of cancer calls to adapt to the selective pressure applied by cytotoxic or other inhibitory agents. The survival of a small number of tumor (stem) cells that acquired resistance to the initial treatment can be sufficient to seed the regrowth of a tumor. These relapses are in most cases more difficult to treat compared to that of the initial tumors. As a consequence the more successful targeting of tumor cells may require targeting multiple survival and escape mechanism of tumor cells in parallel (Muller & Prendegast 2007).
Development of malignancies is accompanied by a major roll up of the cellular physiology. During this process several qualities are acquired by the cancer cells that are basis for immortalization or insensitivity to growth inhibitory signals. In addition the tumor cells also modify the interaction with the microenvironment and beyond. The latter area includes the strategies of tumor cells to escape from the immunological surveillance (Muller & Prendegast 2007). The immune surveillance limits malignant growth but also provides a selective pressure triggering the evolution of mechanisms for evading the immune response as reviewed by [Dunn et al. 2004]. Essentially it has been frequently observed that ablation of T cell immunity is sufficient to increase tumor incidence [Shankaran et al. 2001] and it is believed that immune escape is affecting tumor dormancy versus progression, promoting invasion and metastasis and negatively impacts on therapeutic response.
Several mechanistic studies discovered that immune escape has an important interface with metabolic alterations within the tumor microenvironment. Here important roles in mediating immune tolerance to antigens have been associated to the catabolism of the essential amino acids tryptophan and arginine, carried out by the enzymes indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and arginase I (ARG), respectively (Bronte and Zanovello, 2005; Muller et al., 2005b; Muller and Prendergast, 2007; Munn and Mellor, 2007; Popovic et al., 2007).
IDO is a single-chain oxidoreductase that catalyzes the degradation of tryptophan to kynurenine. IDO is not responsible for catabolizing excess dietary tryptophan but to modulate tryptophan level in a local environment. Elevations in tryptophan catabolism in cancer patients manifest in significantly altered serum concentration of tryptophan or catabolites and this was correlated to IDO which is commonly elevated in tumors and draining lymph nodes. According to several publications IDO over-expression is associated with poor prognosis in cancer [Okamoto et al 2005; Brandacher et al, 2006]. T cells appear to be preferentially sensitive to IDO activation, such that when starved for tryptophan they cannot divide and as a result cannot become activated by an antigen presented to them. Munn and Mellor and their colleagues, revealed that IDO modulates immunity by suppressing T-cell activation and by creating peripheral tolerance to tumor antigens (Mellor and Munn, 2004). These mechanism encompass the subversion of immune cells recruited by the tumor cell to its immediate microenvironment or to the tumor-draining lymph nodes Here the tumor antigens that were scavenged by antigen-presenting cells are cross-presented to the adaptive immune system. In addition to being directly toleragenic, mature DCs have the capacity to expand regulatory Tcells (Tregs) [Moser 2003].
Beside tryptophan catabolism the conversion of arginine is increased in a tumor-conditioned microenvironment, and numerous reports indicate a role for the activation of arginases during tumor growth and development. In tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells, arginine is converted by arginase I (ARG1), arginase II (ARG2) to urea and ornithine and oxidized by the inducible form of nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) to citrulline and nitric oxide (NO).
Increased ARG activity is frequently observed in patients with colon, breast, lung, and prostate cancer [Cederbaum 2004] correlating with the over-expression of ARG and NOS found in prostate cancers [Keskinege et al. 2001, Aaltoma et al. 2001, Wang et al. 2003]. It was shown that ARG activity in infiltrating macrophages impairs antigen-specific T cell responses and the expression of the CD3 receptor. Moreover the cumulative activity of ARG and NOS in tumor associated myeloid cells can generate inhibitory signals to antigen-specific T lymphocytes that eventually lead to apoptosis [Bronte 2003 a; 2003b].
Both, the IDO and the ARG related mechanism merge at the point of sensing the depleted concentration of the respective amino acid concentration. During amino acid deprivation, the eIF2 kinase EIF2AK4 called general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) is interacting with the intracellular accumulating deacylated tRNA. As a consequence the GCN2 is assumed to change from an auto-inhibited to an active conformation and further activate by auto-phosphorylation. Then the only known substrate protein eIF2a becomes phosphorylated and as a consequence the complex for translation initiation is inhibited [Harding et al. 2000,]. This diminishes the general Cap-dependent translation initiation and by this the corresponding protein production. On the other hand this induces the specific expression of stress related target genes mainly by cap-independent initiation via the activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4). By expressing the respective stress response proteins, e.g. enzymes in the in amino acid metabolism, the cell tries to compensate the particular cell stress [Wek et al. 2006]. If the stress persists, the same pathway will switch to promoting cell death via transcription of the pro-apoptotic transcription factor, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) [Oyadomari 2004]. It was shown that, tryptophan starvation triggers a GCN2-dependent stress signaling pathway In T cells altering eIF2aphosphorylation and translational initiation leading to a cell growth arrest (Munn et al. 2005). Sharma, et al. [2007] published on the direct IDO-induced and GCN2-dependent activation of mature Tregs. Similarly Fallarino et al [2006] found a GCN2-dependent conversion of CD4+CD25-cells to CD25+FoxP3+Tregs producing IL-10 and TGF. Rodriguez et al. [2007] identified that activation of the GCN2 pathway via tryptophan or arginine depletion in combination with TCR signaling leads to CD3 chain down regulation, cell cycle arrest and anergy.
Importantly the GCN2 pathway is not only important for the tumoral immune escape but also plays an active role in modulating tumor survival directly. Ye et al [2010] found that the aforementioned transcription factor ATF4 is over-expressed inhuman solid tumors, suggesting an important function in tumour progression. Amino acid and glucose deprivation are typical stresses found in solid tumours and activated the GCN2 pathway to up-regulate ATF4 target genes involved in amino acid synthesis and transport. GCN2 activation/over-expression and increased phospho-eIF2a were observed in human and mouse tumors compared with normal tissues and abrogation of ATF4 or GCN2 expression significantly inhibited tumor growth in vivo. It was concluded that the GCN2-eIF2a-ATF4 pathway is critical for maintaining metabolic homeostasis in tumor cells.
Over all the present biology makes an interference with the ARG/IDO pathway attractive for braking up the tumoral immune escape by adaptive mechanism. The interference of GCN2 function is here of particular interest as it is a merging point of the two pathways, the IDO and ARG, as well as it provides additional opportunities to impede with the tumor metabolism directly.
Several pathway inhibitors are already considered as immune modulators. These inhibitors address mainly the enzymatic function of the IDO or ARG proteins (Muller and Scherle, 2006). The application of the arginase inhibitor, N-hydroxy-nor-L-Arg blocks growth of s.c. 3LL lung carcinoma in mice [Rodriguez 2004]. The NO-donating aspirins like NCX 4016 (2-(acetyloxy)-benzoic acid 3-(nitrooxymethyl)phenyl ester) have been reported to interfere with the inhibitory enzymatic activities of myeloid cells. Orally administered NO aspirin normalized the immune status of tumor-bearing hosts, increased the number and function of tumor-antigen-specific T lymphocytes, and enhanced the preventive and therapeutic effectiveness of the antitumor immunity elicited by cancer vaccination (DeSanto 2005).
The substrate analogue 1 methyl-tryptophan (1 MT) and related molecules have been used widely to target IDO in the cancer context and other settings. Studies by Friberg et al. (2002) and Uyttenhove et al. (2003) demonstrated that 1 MT can limit the growth of tumors over-expressing IDO. However 1 MT was unable to elicit tumor regression in several tumor models, suggesting only modest antitumor efficacy when IDO inhibition was applied as a monotherapy. In contrast, the combinatory treatment with 1 MT and a variety of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents elicited regression of established MMTV-neu/HER2 tumors, which responded poorly to any single-agent therapy [Muller et al 2005a]. Immunodepletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells from the mice, before treatment abolished the combinatorial efficacy observed in this model, confirming the expectation that 1 MT acted indirectly through activation of T cell-mediated antitumor immunity. Important evidence that IDO targeting is essential to 1 MT action was provided by the demonstration that 1 MT lacks antitumor activity in mice that are genetically deficient for IDO [Hou et al., 2007]
The inhibition of GCN2 would enable to combine the two pathway branches of amino acid starvation induced immunoediting and would reduce the options for the tumor to circumvent the inhibition of either branch. Moreover, as detailed above, the GCN2 inhibition provides the opportunity for interfering with the tumor metabolism at the same time what may enhance the efficacy of a monotherapy or a combination therapy with other anticancer approaches.
As mentioned above, the eIF2 kinase GCN2 is activated by interacting with deacylated tRNA that is accumulating as direct consequence of nutritional deprivation stress. Other cellular stress factors like UV irridation, redox stress or proteasome inhibition can induce GCN2 activation indirectly [Wek et al 2006]. In all known cases eIF2a becomes phosphorylated and this induces the specific expression of stress related target genes mainly by cap-independent initiation via the activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4). Mitsuda et al (2007) showed that presenilin-1 is induced by activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), regulated by GCN2. Accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ), which is generated from amyloid precursor protein by γ-secretase, in cerebral cortex is common and critical incident in Alzheimer disease. Specifically, presenilin is an essential for γ-secretase activity. Ohata et al. (2010) describe a role of GCN2-eIF2α-ATF4 signaling in the regulation of γ-secretase activity in autophagy impaired cells: The impairment of the autophagy-lysosomal system may cause amino acid imbalance in the cell because autophagy is required for maintenance of amino acid level. The autophagy-lysosomal system is discussed as a vital modulator of γ-secretase activity through GCN2, leading to Aβ accumulation in autophagy deterioration, which may be a possible therapeutic target for reducing Aβ production. γ-Secretase plays an important role in the development of Alzheimer disease (AD). γ-Secretase activity is enriched in autophagic vacuoles and it augments amyloid-β (Aβ) synthesis.
Senile plaques are primarily composed of β-amyloid peptides (Aβ) derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP) that has undergone proteolytic processing by β-secretase (BACE-1) and γ-secretase. O'Connor et al. (2008) found that BACE-1 levels are translationally increased by phosphorylation of eIF2α.
Inhibition of GCN2 under such disease conditions that promote activation of γ-secretase or induction of BACE-1 with consequence of accumulation of Aβ and plaque formation in the brain would provide a valuable avenue to temper or even stop the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.
It was described that persistent, not acute, parasite or viral infections are associated to the establishment of immune privileged conditions of even immune competent host towards the infectious organism or particles. This has been associated to the local induction of IDO expression. Makala et al (J Infect Dis. 2011 Mar. 1; 203(5):715-25) show that cutaneous Leishmania major infection stimulated expression of the immune regulatory enzyme indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO) in local lymph nodes. Induced IDO attenuated the T cell stimulatory functions of dendritic cells and suppressed local T cell responses to exogenous and nominal parasite antigens. IDO ablation reduced local inflammation and parasite burdens, as did pharmacologic inhibition of IDO in mice with established infections. de Souza Sales (Clin Exp Immunol. 2011 August; 165(2):251-63) corroborated the role of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in lepromatous leprosy immunosuppression. Boasso et al (Blood. 2007 Apr. 15; 109(8):3351-9) found that HIV inhibits CD4+ T-cell proliferation by inducing indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in plasmacytoid dendritic cells and that in vitro inhibition of IDO results in increased CD4(+) T-cell proliferative response in PBMCs from HIV-infected patients Inhibitor drugs of the IDO/GCN2 pathway could be used to enhance host immunity to chronic and persistent infections.